Italy deserve their place in Six Nations, says Parisse

LONDON, Feb 14 (Reuters) - Italy have become accustomed to one-sided defeats in the Six Nations but captain Sergio Parisse mounted a passionate defence of his side's continued involvement in the championship after a 47-17 loss to England on Saturday.

Italy have finished bottom on 10 out of 15 appearances since their debut in 2000 and have now lost 21 successive matches to England.

They were thrashed 59-13 by England in 2011 and were humbled 52-11 last year, although those heavy defeats were sandwiched by two close encounters.

"When you lose matches as we have against Ireland and England people ask questions but I think if anyone thinks Italy are only a little team there wouldn't be 82,000 people here today," Parisse told reporters.

"We've shown in previous years we deserve to be here -- though this isn't the best moment for us.

"We want to do better, we have to be realistic...we have lost against two great teams."

Italy, with Parisse scoring an early try to silence the Twickenham crowd, were the better side for the opening quarter before England, who regrouped after fullback Mike Brown's early head injury, began to click.

Still, had burly flyhalf Kelly Haimona not missed two quick penalties late in the first half, and failing with two conversions, Italy would have stayed in touch.

Centre Luca Morisi scored two well-taken second half tries but Italy's rugged and uncompromising pack -- boasting four players each with over 100 caps -- tired and England took full advantage.

"It's difficult to be positive when you lose by 40-odd points, we scored three tries against a good team with a good defence, more phases, they were not easy tries we scored -- we built them," added Parisse.

"So in attack we did good things today but it's still difficult to sound positive with that scoreline but we think we showed that if we play as we did we can put teams like England under pressure.

"But in defence we missed some easy tackles and we gifted Ben Youngs that try."

Italy gave South Africa and Argentina a run for their money in November after beating Samoa, but look set for another battle to avoid the Six Nations wooden spoon.

Jacques Brunel's side next face Scotland at Murrayfield and Parisse said: "We need to take those positive things to Edinburgh and try to do better." (editing by Alan Baldwin)